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  <div class="section" id="module-email.parser">
<span id="email-parser-parsing-email-messages"></span><h1>19.1.2. <a class="reference internal" href="#module-email.parser" title="email.parser: Parse flat text email messages to produce a message object structure."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.parser</span></tt></a>: Parsing email messages<a class="headerlink" href="#module-email.parser" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1>
<p>Message object structures can be created in one of two ways: they can be created
from whole cloth by instantiating <a class="reference internal" href="email.message.html#email.message.Message" title="email.message.Message"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Message</span></tt></a> objects and
stringing them together via <a class="reference internal" href="email.message.html#email.message.Message.attach" title="email.message.Message.attach"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">attach()</span></tt></a> and
<a class="reference internal" href="email.message.html#email.message.Message.set_payload" title="email.message.Message.set_payload"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">set_payload()</span></tt></a> calls, or they
can be created by parsing a flat text representation of the email message.</p>
<p>The <a class="reference internal" href="email.html#module-email" title="email: Package supporting the parsing, manipulating, and generating email messages, including MIME documents."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">email</span></tt></a> package provides a standard parser that understands most email
document structures, including MIME documents.  You can pass the parser a string
or a file object, and the parser will return to you the root
<a class="reference internal" href="email.message.html#email.message.Message" title="email.message.Message"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Message</span></tt></a> instance of the object structure.  For simple,
non-MIME messages the payload of this root object will likely be a string
containing the text of the message.  For MIME messages, the root object will
return <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">True</span></tt> from its <a class="reference internal" href="email.message.html#email.message.Message.is_multipart" title="email.message.Message.is_multipart"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">is_multipart()</span></tt></a> method, and
the subparts can be accessed via the <a class="reference internal" href="email.message.html#email.message.Message.get_payload" title="email.message.Message.get_payload"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">get_payload()</span></tt></a>
and <a class="reference internal" href="email.message.html#email.message.Message.walk" title="email.message.Message.walk"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">walk()</span></tt></a> methods.</p>
<p>There are actually two parser interfaces available for use, the classic
<a class="reference internal" href="#email.parser.Parser" title="email.parser.Parser"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Parser</span></tt></a> API and the incremental <a class="reference internal" href="#email.parser.FeedParser" title="email.parser.FeedParser"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">FeedParser</span></tt></a> API.  The classic
<a class="reference internal" href="#email.parser.Parser" title="email.parser.Parser"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Parser</span></tt></a> API is fine if you have the entire text of the message in memory
as a string, or if the entire message lives in a file on the file system.
<a class="reference internal" href="#email.parser.FeedParser" title="email.parser.FeedParser"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">FeedParser</span></tt></a> is more appropriate for when you&#8217;re reading the message from
a stream which might block waiting for more input (e.g. reading an email message
from a socket).  The <a class="reference internal" href="#email.parser.FeedParser" title="email.parser.FeedParser"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">FeedParser</span></tt></a> can consume and parse the message
incrementally, and only returns the root object when you close the parser <a class="footnote-reference" href="#id2" id="id1">[1]</a>.</p>
<p>Note that the parser can be extended in limited ways, and of course you can
implement your own parser completely from scratch.  There is no magical
connection between the <a class="reference internal" href="email.html#module-email" title="email: Package supporting the parsing, manipulating, and generating email messages, including MIME documents."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">email</span></tt></a> package&#8217;s bundled parser and the
<a class="reference internal" href="email.message.html#email.message.Message" title="email.message.Message"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Message</span></tt></a> class, so your custom parser can create message
object trees any way it finds necessary.</p>
<div class="section" id="feedparser-api">
<h2>19.1.2.1. FeedParser API<a class="headerlink" href="#feedparser-api" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>The <a class="reference internal" href="#email.parser.FeedParser" title="email.parser.FeedParser"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">FeedParser</span></tt></a>, imported from the <tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.feedparser</span></tt> module,
provides an API that is conducive to incremental parsing of email messages, such
as would be necessary when reading the text of an email message from a source
that can block (e.g. a socket).  The <a class="reference internal" href="#email.parser.FeedParser" title="email.parser.FeedParser"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">FeedParser</span></tt></a> can of course be used
to parse an email message fully contained in a string or a file, but the classic
<a class="reference internal" href="#email.parser.Parser" title="email.parser.Parser"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Parser</span></tt></a> API may be more convenient for such use cases.  The semantics
and results of the two parser APIs are identical.</p>
<p>The <a class="reference internal" href="#email.parser.FeedParser" title="email.parser.FeedParser"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">FeedParser</span></tt></a>&#8216;s API is simple; you create an instance, feed it a bunch
of text until there&#8217;s no more to feed it, then close the parser to retrieve the
root message object.  The <a class="reference internal" href="#email.parser.FeedParser" title="email.parser.FeedParser"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">FeedParser</span></tt></a> is extremely accurate when parsing
standards-compliant messages, and it does a very good job of parsing
non-compliant messages, providing information about how a message was deemed
broken.  It will populate a message object&#8217;s <em>defects</em> attribute with a list of
any problems it found in a message.  See the <a class="reference internal" href="email.errors.html#module-email.errors" title="email.errors: The exception classes used by the email package."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.errors</span></tt></a> module for the
list of defects that it can find.</p>
<p>Here is the API for the <a class="reference internal" href="#email.parser.FeedParser" title="email.parser.FeedParser"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">FeedParser</span></tt></a>:</p>
<dl class="class">
<dt id="email.parser.FeedParser">
<em class="property">class </em><tt class="descclassname">email.parser.</tt><tt class="descname">FeedParser</tt><big>(</big><em>_factory=email.message.Message</em>, <em>*</em>, <em>policy=policy.compat32</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.parser.FeedParser" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Create a <a class="reference internal" href="#email.parser.FeedParser" title="email.parser.FeedParser"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">FeedParser</span></tt></a> instance.  Optional <em>_factory</em> is a no-argument
callable that will be called whenever a new message object is needed.  It
defaults to the <a class="reference internal" href="email.message.html#email.message.Message" title="email.message.Message"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.message.Message</span></tt></a> class.</p>
<p>If <em>policy</em> is specified (it must be an instance of a <a class="reference internal" href="email.policy.html#module-email.policy" title="email.policy: Controlling the parsing and generating of messages"><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">policy</span></tt></a>
class) use the rules it specifies to update the representation of the
message.  If <em>policy</em> is not set, use the <a class="reference internal" href="email.policy.html#email.policy.Compat32" title="email.policy.Compat32"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">compat32</span></tt></a> policy, which maintains backward compatibility with
the Python 3.2 version of the email package.  For more information see the
<a class="reference internal" href="email.policy.html#module-email.policy" title="email.policy: Controlling the parsing and generating of messages"><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">policy</span></tt></a> documentation.</p>
<div class="versionchanged">
<p><span class="versionmodified">Changed in version 3.3: </span>Added the <em>policy</em> keyword.</p>
</div>
<dl class="method">
<dt id="email.parser.FeedParser.feed">
<tt class="descname">feed</tt><big>(</big><em>data</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.parser.FeedParser.feed" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Feed the <a class="reference internal" href="#email.parser.FeedParser" title="email.parser.FeedParser"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">FeedParser</span></tt></a> some more data.  <em>data</em> should be a string
containing one or more lines.  The lines can be partial and the
<a class="reference internal" href="#email.parser.FeedParser" title="email.parser.FeedParser"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">FeedParser</span></tt></a> will stitch such partial lines together properly.  The
lines in the string can have any of the common three line endings,
carriage return, newline, or carriage return and newline (they can even be
mixed).</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="method">
<dt id="email.parser.FeedParser.close">
<tt class="descname">close</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.parser.FeedParser.close" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Closing a <a class="reference internal" href="#email.parser.FeedParser" title="email.parser.FeedParser"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">FeedParser</span></tt></a> completes the parsing of all previously fed
data, and returns the root message object.  It is undefined what happens
if you feed more data to a closed <a class="reference internal" href="#email.parser.FeedParser" title="email.parser.FeedParser"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">FeedParser</span></tt></a>.</p>
</dd></dl>

</dd></dl>

<dl class="class">
<dt id="email.parser.BytesFeedParser">
<em class="property">class </em><tt class="descclassname">email.parser.</tt><tt class="descname">BytesFeedParser</tt><big>(</big><em>_factory=email.message.Message</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.parser.BytesFeedParser" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Works exactly like <a class="reference internal" href="#email.parser.FeedParser" title="email.parser.FeedParser"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">FeedParser</span></tt></a> except that the input to the
<a class="reference internal" href="#email.parser.FeedParser.feed" title="email.parser.FeedParser.feed"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">feed()</span></tt></a> method must be bytes and not string.</p>
<div class="versionadded">
<p><span class="versionmodified">New in version 3.2.</span></p>
</div>
</dd></dl>

</div>
<div class="section" id="parser-class-api">
<h2>19.1.2.2. Parser class API<a class="headerlink" href="#parser-class-api" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>The <a class="reference internal" href="#email.parser.Parser" title="email.parser.Parser"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Parser</span></tt></a> class, imported from the <a class="reference internal" href="#module-email.parser" title="email.parser: Parse flat text email messages to produce a message object structure."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.parser</span></tt></a> module,
provides an API that can be used to parse a message when the complete contents
of the message are available in a string or file.  The <a class="reference internal" href="#module-email.parser" title="email.parser: Parse flat text email messages to produce a message object structure."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.parser</span></tt></a>
module also provides header-only parsers, called <tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">HeaderParser</span></tt> and
<tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">BytesHeaderParser</span></tt>, which can be used if you&#8217;re only interested in the
headers of the message.  <tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">HeaderParser</span></tt> and <tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">BytesHeaderParser</span></tt>
can be much faster in these situations, since they do not attempt to parse the
message body, instead setting the payload to the raw body as a string.  They
have the same API as the <a class="reference internal" href="#email.parser.Parser" title="email.parser.Parser"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Parser</span></tt></a> and <a class="reference internal" href="#email.parser.BytesParser" title="email.parser.BytesParser"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">BytesParser</span></tt></a> classes.</p>
<div class="versionadded">
<p><span class="versionmodified">New in version 3.3: </span>The BytesHeaderParser class.</p>
</div>
<dl class="class">
<dt id="email.parser.Parser">
<em class="property">class </em><tt class="descclassname">email.parser.</tt><tt class="descname">Parser</tt><big>(</big><em>_class=email.message.Message</em>, <em>*</em>, <em>policy=policy.compat32</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.parser.Parser" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>The constructor for the <a class="reference internal" href="#email.parser.Parser" title="email.parser.Parser"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Parser</span></tt></a> class takes an optional argument
<em>_class</em>.  This must be a callable factory (such as a function or a class), and
it is used whenever a sub-message object needs to be created.  It defaults to
<a class="reference internal" href="email.message.html#email.message.Message" title="email.message.Message"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Message</span></tt></a> (see <a class="reference internal" href="email.message.html#module-email.message" title="email.message: The base class representing email messages."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.message</span></tt></a>).  The factory will
be called without arguments.</p>
<p>If <em>policy</em> is specified (it must be an instance of a <a class="reference internal" href="email.policy.html#module-email.policy" title="email.policy: Controlling the parsing and generating of messages"><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">policy</span></tt></a>
class) use the rules it specifies to update the representation of the
message.  If <em>policy</em> is not set, use the <a class="reference internal" href="email.policy.html#email.policy.Compat32" title="email.policy.Compat32"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">compat32</span></tt></a> policy, which maintains backward compatibility with
the Python 3.2 version of the email package.  For more information see the
<a class="reference internal" href="email.policy.html#module-email.policy" title="email.policy: Controlling the parsing and generating of messages"><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">policy</span></tt></a> documentation.</p>
<div class="versionchanged">
<p><span class="versionmodified">Changed in version 3.3: </span>Removed the <em>strict</em> argument that was deprecated in 2.4.  Added the
<em>policy</em> keyword.</p>
</div>
<p>The other public <a class="reference internal" href="#email.parser.Parser" title="email.parser.Parser"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Parser</span></tt></a> methods are:</p>
<dl class="method">
<dt id="email.parser.Parser.parse">
<tt class="descname">parse</tt><big>(</big><em>fp</em>, <em>headersonly=False</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.parser.Parser.parse" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Read all the data from the file-like object <em>fp</em>, parse the resulting
text, and return the root message object.  <em>fp</em> must support both the
<a class="reference internal" href="io.html#io.TextIOBase.readline" title="io.TextIOBase.readline"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">readline()</span></tt></a> and the <a class="reference internal" href="io.html#io.TextIOBase.read" title="io.TextIOBase.read"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">read()</span></tt></a>
methods on file-like objects.</p>
<p>The text contained in <em>fp</em> must be formatted as a block of <span class="target" id="index-0"></span><a class="rfc reference external" href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2822.html"><strong>RFC 2822</strong></a>
style headers and header continuation lines, optionally preceded by a
envelope header.  The header block is terminated either by the end of the
data or by a blank line.  Following the header block is the body of the
message (which may contain MIME-encoded subparts).</p>
<p>Optional <em>headersonly</em> is a flag specifying whether to stop parsing after
reading the headers or not.  The default is <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">False</span></tt>, meaning it parses
the entire contents of the file.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="method">
<dt id="email.parser.Parser.parsestr">
<tt class="descname">parsestr</tt><big>(</big><em>text</em>, <em>headersonly=False</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.parser.Parser.parsestr" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Similar to the <a class="reference internal" href="#email.parser.Parser.parse" title="email.parser.Parser.parse"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">parse()</span></tt></a> method, except it takes a string object
instead of a file-like object.  Calling this method on a string is exactly
equivalent to wrapping <em>text</em> in a <a class="reference internal" href="io.html#io.StringIO" title="io.StringIO"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">StringIO</span></tt></a> instance first and
calling <a class="reference internal" href="#email.parser.Parser.parse" title="email.parser.Parser.parse"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">parse()</span></tt></a>.</p>
<p>Optional <em>headersonly</em> is as with the <a class="reference internal" href="#email.parser.Parser.parse" title="email.parser.Parser.parse"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">parse()</span></tt></a> method.</p>
</dd></dl>

</dd></dl>

<dl class="class">
<dt id="email.parser.BytesParser">
<em class="property">class </em><tt class="descclassname">email.parser.</tt><tt class="descname">BytesParser</tt><big>(</big><em>_class=email.message.Message</em>, <em>*</em>, <em>policy=policy.compat32</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.parser.BytesParser" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>This class is exactly parallel to <a class="reference internal" href="#email.parser.Parser" title="email.parser.Parser"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Parser</span></tt></a>, but handles bytes input.
The <em>_class</em> and <em>strict</em> arguments are interpreted in the same way as for
the <a class="reference internal" href="#email.parser.Parser" title="email.parser.Parser"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Parser</span></tt></a> constructor.</p>
<p>If <em>policy</em> is specified (it must be an instance of a <a class="reference internal" href="email.policy.html#module-email.policy" title="email.policy: Controlling the parsing and generating of messages"><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">policy</span></tt></a>
class) use the rules it specifies to update the representation of the
message.  If <em>policy</em> is not set, use the <a class="reference internal" href="email.policy.html#email.policy.Compat32" title="email.policy.Compat32"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">compat32</span></tt></a> policy, which maintains backward compatibility with
the Python 3.2 version of the email package.  For more information see the
<a class="reference internal" href="email.policy.html#module-email.policy" title="email.policy: Controlling the parsing and generating of messages"><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">policy</span></tt></a> documentation.</p>
<div class="versionchanged">
<p><span class="versionmodified">Changed in version 3.3: </span>Removed the <em>strict</em> argument.  Added the <em>policy</em> keyword.</p>
</div>
<dl class="method">
<dt id="email.parser.BytesParser.parse">
<tt class="descname">parse</tt><big>(</big><em>fp</em>, <em>headersonly=False</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.parser.BytesParser.parse" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Read all the data from the binary file-like object <em>fp</em>, parse the
resulting bytes, and return the message object.  <em>fp</em> must support
both the <a class="reference internal" href="io.html#io.IOBase.readline" title="io.IOBase.readline"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">readline()</span></tt></a> and the <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">read()</span></tt>
methods on file-like objects.</p>
<p>The bytes contained in <em>fp</em> must be formatted as a block of <span class="target" id="index-1"></span><a class="rfc reference external" href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2822.html"><strong>RFC 2822</strong></a>
style headers and header continuation lines, optionally preceded by a
envelope header.  The header block is terminated either by the end of the
data or by a blank line.  Following the header block is the body of the
message (which may contain MIME-encoded subparts, including subparts
with a <em class="mailheader">Content-Transfer-Encoding</em> of <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">8bit</span></tt>.</p>
<p>Optional <em>headersonly</em> is a flag specifying whether to stop parsing after
reading the headers or not.  The default is <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">False</span></tt>, meaning it parses
the entire contents of the file.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="method">
<dt id="email.parser.BytesParser.parsebytes">
<tt class="descname">parsebytes</tt><big>(</big><em>bytes</em>, <em>headersonly=False</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.parser.BytesParser.parsebytes" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Similar to the <a class="reference internal" href="#email.parser.BytesParser.parse" title="email.parser.BytesParser.parse"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">parse()</span></tt></a> method, except it takes a byte string object
instead of a file-like object.  Calling this method on a byte string is
exactly equivalent to wrapping <em>text</em> in a <a class="reference internal" href="io.html#io.BytesIO" title="io.BytesIO"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">BytesIO</span></tt></a> instance
first and calling <a class="reference internal" href="#email.parser.BytesParser.parse" title="email.parser.BytesParser.parse"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">parse()</span></tt></a>.</p>
<p>Optional <em>headersonly</em> is as with the <a class="reference internal" href="#email.parser.BytesParser.parse" title="email.parser.BytesParser.parse"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">parse()</span></tt></a> method.</p>
</dd></dl>

<div class="versionadded">
<p><span class="versionmodified">New in version 3.2.</span></p>
</div>
</dd></dl>

<p>Since creating a message object structure from a string or a file object is such
a common task, four functions are provided as a convenience.  They are available
in the top-level <a class="reference internal" href="email.html#module-email" title="email: Package supporting the parsing, manipulating, and generating email messages, including MIME documents."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">email</span></tt></a> package namespace.</p>
<dl class="function">
<dt id="email.message_from_string">
<tt class="descclassname">email.</tt><tt class="descname">message_from_string</tt><big>(</big><em>s</em>, <em>_class=email.message.Message</em>, <em>*</em>, <em>policy=policy.compat32</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.message_from_string" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Return a message object structure from a string.  This is exactly equivalent to
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">Parser().parsestr(s)</span></tt>.  <em>_class</em> and <em>policy</em> are interpreted as
with the <a class="reference internal" href="#email.parser.Parser" title="email.parser.Parser"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Parser</span></tt></a> class constructor.</p>
<div class="versionchanged">
<p><span class="versionmodified">Changed in version 3.3: </span>Removed the <em>strict</em> argument.  Added the <em>policy</em> keyword.</p>
</div>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="function">
<dt id="email.message_from_bytes">
<tt class="descclassname">email.</tt><tt class="descname">message_from_bytes</tt><big>(</big><em>s</em>, <em>_class=email.message.Message</em>, <em>*</em>, <em>policy=policy.compat32</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.message_from_bytes" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Return a message object structure from a byte string.  This is exactly
equivalent to <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">BytesParser().parsebytes(s)</span></tt>.  Optional <em>_class</em> and
<em>strict</em> are interpreted as with the <a class="reference internal" href="#email.parser.Parser" title="email.parser.Parser"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Parser</span></tt></a> class
constructor.</p>
<div class="versionadded">
<p><span class="versionmodified">New in version 3.2.</span></p>
</div>
<div class="versionchanged">
<p><span class="versionmodified">Changed in version 3.3: </span>Removed the <em>strict</em> argument.  Added the <em>policy</em> keyword.</p>
</div>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="function">
<dt id="email.message_from_file">
<tt class="descclassname">email.</tt><tt class="descname">message_from_file</tt><big>(</big><em>fp</em>, <em>_class=email.message.Message</em>, <em>*</em>, <em>policy=policy.compat32</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.message_from_file" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Return a message object structure tree from an open <a class="reference internal" href="../glossary.html#term-file-object"><em class="xref std std-term">file object</em></a>.
This is exactly equivalent to <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">Parser().parse(fp)</span></tt>.  <em>_class</em>
and <em>policy</em> are interpreted as with the <a class="reference internal" href="#email.parser.Parser" title="email.parser.Parser"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Parser</span></tt></a> class
constructor.</p>
<div class="versionchanged">
<p><span class="versionmodified">Changed in version Removed: </span>the <em>strict</em> argument.  Added the <em>policy</em> keyword.</p>
</div>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="function">
<dt id="email.message_from_binary_file">
<tt class="descclassname">email.</tt><tt class="descname">message_from_binary_file</tt><big>(</big><em>fp</em>, <em>_class=email.message.Message</em>, <em>*</em>, <em>policy=policy.compat32</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.message_from_binary_file" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Return a message object structure tree from an open binary <a class="reference internal" href="../glossary.html#term-file-object"><em class="xref std std-term">file
object</em></a>.  This is exactly equivalent to <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">BytesParser().parse(fp)</span></tt>.
<em>_class</em> and <em>policy</em> are interpreted as with the
<a class="reference internal" href="#email.parser.Parser" title="email.parser.Parser"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Parser</span></tt></a> class constructor.</p>
<div class="versionadded">
<p><span class="versionmodified">New in version 3.2.</span></p>
</div>
<div class="versionchanged">
<p><span class="versionmodified">Changed in version 3.3: </span>Removed the <em>strict</em> argument.  Added the <em>policy</em> keyword.</p>
</div>
</dd></dl>

<p>Here&#8217;s an example of how you might use this at an interactive Python prompt:</p>
<div class="highlight-python3"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">email</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">msg</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">email</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">message_from_string</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">myString</span><span class="p">)</span>  
</pre></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section" id="additional-notes">
<h2>19.1.2.3. Additional notes<a class="headerlink" href="#additional-notes" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>Here are some notes on the parsing semantics:</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li>Most non-<em class="mimetype">multipart</em> type messages are parsed as a single message
object with a string payload.  These objects will return <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">False</span></tt> for
<a class="reference internal" href="email.message.html#email.message.Message.is_multipart" title="email.message.Message.is_multipart"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">is_multipart()</span></tt></a>.  Their
<a class="reference internal" href="email.message.html#email.message.Message.get_payload" title="email.message.Message.get_payload"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">get_payload()</span></tt></a> method will return a string object.</li>
<li>All <em class="mimetype">multipart</em> type messages will be parsed as a container message
object with a list of sub-message objects for their payload.  The outer
container message will return <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">True</span></tt> for
<a class="reference internal" href="email.message.html#email.message.Message.is_multipart" title="email.message.Message.is_multipart"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">is_multipart()</span></tt></a> and their
<a class="reference internal" href="email.message.html#email.message.Message.get_payload" title="email.message.Message.get_payload"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">get_payload()</span></tt></a> method will return the list of
<a class="reference internal" href="email.message.html#email.message.Message" title="email.message.Message"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Message</span></tt></a> subparts.</li>
<li>Most messages with a content type of <em class="mimetype">message/*</em> (e.g.
<em class="mimetype">message/delivery-status</em> and <em class="mimetype">message/rfc822</em>) will also be
parsed as container object containing a list payload of length 1.  Their
<a class="reference internal" href="email.message.html#email.message.Message.is_multipart" title="email.message.Message.is_multipart"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">is_multipart()</span></tt></a> method will return <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">True</span></tt>.
The single element in the list payload will be a sub-message object.</li>
<li>Some non-standards compliant messages may not be internally consistent about
their <em class="mimetype">multipart</em>-edness.  Such messages may have a
<em class="mailheader">Content-Type</em> header of type <em class="mimetype">multipart</em>, but their
<a class="reference internal" href="email.message.html#email.message.Message.is_multipart" title="email.message.Message.is_multipart"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">is_multipart()</span></tt></a> method may return <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">False</span></tt>.
If such messages were parsed with the <a class="reference internal" href="#email.parser.FeedParser" title="email.parser.FeedParser"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">FeedParser</span></tt></a>,
they will have an instance of the
<tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">MultipartInvariantViolationDefect</span></tt> class in their
<em>defects</em> attribute list.  See <a class="reference internal" href="email.errors.html#module-email.errors" title="email.errors: The exception classes used by the email package."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.errors</span></tt></a> for details.</li>
</ul>
<p class="rubric">Footnotes</p>
<table class="docutils footnote" frame="void" id="id2" rules="none">
<colgroup><col class="label" /><col /></colgroup>
<tbody valign="top">
<tr><td class="label"><a class="fn-backref" href="#id1">[1]</a></td><td>As of email package version 3.0, introduced in Python 2.4, the classic
<a class="reference internal" href="#email.parser.Parser" title="email.parser.Parser"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">Parser</span></tt></a> was re-implemented in terms of the
<a class="reference internal" href="#email.parser.FeedParser" title="email.parser.FeedParser"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">FeedParser</span></tt></a>, so the semantics and results are
identical between the two parsers.</td></tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
</div>


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  <h3><a href="../contents.html">Table Of Contents</a></h3>
  <ul>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#">19.1.2. <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.parser</span></tt>: Parsing email messages</a><ul>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#feedparser-api">19.1.2.1. FeedParser API</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#parser-class-api">19.1.2.2. Parser class API</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#additional-notes">19.1.2.3. Additional notes</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>

  <h4>Previous topic</h4>
  <p class="topless"><a href="email.message.html"
                        title="previous chapter">19.1.1. <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.message</span></tt>: Representing an email message</a></p>
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  <p class="topless"><a href="email.generator.html"
                        title="next chapter">19.1.3. <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.generator</span></tt>: Generating MIME documents</a></p>
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